Broken Lovers

Chapter 13

I went home. The only thing I wanted was to hide in my mom's hug and stay there forever. I knocked on her bedroom door and went in. She was lying very still. I went over to give her a kiss. She looked very peaceful. Too peaceful. I didn’t want to disturb her, so I just lightly touched her cheek. It was cold and there was no response. Not even a twitch. Then it hit me. She was dead. My whole body shook. I burst into tears and felt like someone was strangling me. After that, I don't remember anything.  

Two days later, we were at Saint George's Church. My eyes were sore and my body ached. I’d had very little sleep since discovering my mom’s body and I was physically and mentally drained. Liam sat next to me, holding me as if he had to, not because he wanted to. After what had happened between us and my behavior toward him, I couldn't blame him for that. He guided me through the service and the small wake that followed

"Please stay with me," I asked when he put me to bed.

"I’m sorry, I can’t. There’s something I need to finish.” He brushed his lips lightly against my forehead. It was a cold, perfunctory kiss. At that moment I felt so desperately alone. I had nobody to rely on, nobody to talk to, nobody to support me and nobody to stand by me at that most difficult moment of my life.

                                                                                            *****

I didn’t hear from my blackmailer for almost a week. No calls, no texts, nothing. I spent my time grieving even though I knew nothing would bring Mom back. On Thursday morning, I decided to get out of bed and go to the office. I wanted to get back to my routine and back to my life. I was sure my blackmailer had finished with me and I’d never hear from him again, although I dreamed about him every night. I dreamed he came to comfort me and that he made love to me, but in truth, there was no sign of him. He’d gone.

When I got to the office, there was another girl sitting in my place. I understood that someone would have had to cover for me while I was away, so I didn’t mind. I introduced myself to her, but she didn't know who I was, only mentioning that the previous girl had been dismissed and that she was the new legal assistant. I was sure there was some misunderstanding, so I went in see Liam.

He had his head down on his folded arms, on top of a pile of case papers. He looked like he was asleep. I was sure he’d spent the night there. I tried to wake him up, and he pushed his chair back from the desk, blinking and then staring at me as if I was his enemy.

"I wasn’t expecting to see you here."

"I decided to come back. I can't grieve forever."

"There’s no longer any place for you in this company."

"What do you mean?" I asked, playing it a little bit coyly in the hope that he was just angry with me for my previous bad behavior towards him.

"I know what you did, Maya," he said.

"I don't understand."

"I know what you did to this firm and I know what you did to me. I followed you. Have you any idea how much you’ve hurt me? First, my wife's betrayal and then you. You know how hard it’ll for me to trust anyone in the future?"

"It's not like that, Liam. I can explain."

"There’s nothing to explain," he said, the volume of his voice rising. “Get out!”

"Please let me tell you what happened."

He got up and came round to my side of the desk. "I don't want to ever hear your voice again. I don't want to ever see your face again. You disgust me. You’re a slut. You’re no better than a common prostitute. You’re the worst kind of woman." Then he slapped me so hard, I fell to the floor. "I hired you, I got you a nice apartment and car, I offered you a better life, I offered you my love and you… what did you do? You cheated on me and tried to destroy me and my firm. Just thank your lucky stars that we’re not taking legal action against you… and that’s only because the resultant publicity will only make things worse than they are at the moment. Otherwise, you’d be in jail. And all because you couldn’t keep your whorish legs together.  Now get the f**k out of my office and out of my life before I call security to throw you out with the rest of the garbage.” By then, he was ranting out loud. I was sure the whole firm could hear every word he spat at me. I was still on the floor, crying, not knowing what to tell him, not knowing how to explain to him what happened.

“Please, let me explain,” I whimpered through my tears. But that just set him off again.

"If you wanted more money, you only had to tell me and it would’ve been yours. But no, it was more fun to extort money from other sources. How much did they pay you to leak the evidence?"

"I didn't get money, Liam,” I said raising myself up off the carpet. “You don't know what happened. Please, let me talk to you."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! I don’t want to hear your pathetic excuses. You’re a dirty f*****g two-timing cunt.” He slapped me again, even harder than before. "And then you have the nerve to come back to me when your lover dumps you… probably because he left you without any money. He had his fun with you, used you to get what he wanted and then felt sorry for me. He felt sorry for the lame person I must have been to be with a common tart like you. When I broke into your love nest, he was already gone, but he left me an envelope with the copy of Benjamin's case file and a note to check the security camera on January 12 from 13.36 till 14.18. And I did check it, Maya. You know what is showed? It showed you entering at 13.36 and coming out at 14.18. Now get the f**k out of this building and the hell out of my life. I never even want to hear your stupid Japanese name ever again. You’re just a cunting shitbag of a whore.”